Focus Financial Network Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Focus Financial Network Inc. raised its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 3.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,238 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 352 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc.’s holdings in Block were worth $687,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SQ. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Block in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Block in the second quarter valued at $34,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at $44,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter worth $46,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SQ has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Block from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total value of $539,404.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 580,086 shares in the company, valued at $37,572,170.22. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,214 shares of company stock valued at $1,637,932 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block Price Performance

Shares of Block stock opened at $72.15 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $68.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.90. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $42.78 and a twelve month high of $87.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.37, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.48.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The company’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Block Company Profile

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.